"I first started milk
delivery at the Henderson Street Branch
in 1955 when I was 12 years old. Iím sure
you had to be 13, but I stayed just around the corner in Speirs
Place, and my Mother, who like all the locals knew the Boss, got me a
start!

It was pretty hard work for a laddie, 6
mornings a week and Saturday afternoon to make up for Sunday. I recall
that my Saturday was curtailed because of this. I
was always envious of my pals who could go off and play while I had to
work on.

I canít recall what the wage was but it must
have been OK as I stayed in the job until I was 16. I
worked full time as the Grocery message laddie from age 15, and at this
time also worked behind the counter in the Bakery shop starting at 6 am
'till 7 am and then on with the milk delivery. I
must have been fit!"

The Barrow

"I started off with biggest and longest
delivery in the branch.Maybe
thatís why the Boss was so keen to take me on. The delivery was made using
a large wooden barrow mounted on two metal shod, cart-type
wheels, which carried four crates containing approx. eighty pints, but
instead of a horse between the shafts there was a wee boy.

A feature of the barrow was a bracket fixed on
the right hand side which, in the Winter months, carried a candle-lit
lamp, showing white to the front and red to the rear. This also came in
handy for lighting the way up a dark tenement stair."

The Long Route

"Manyís the time I had to ask a Docker on his
way to work for a shove after I was loaded up. Then it was off, past the
Dumfriesshire Dairy on the corner, past Joe Muirs Paper shop on the right
then left at Jack Haynes Bike Shop into Giles Street. At this time, Giles
Street ran straight through to the Coppy Buildings with Wingy Robertsons
scrap yard on the left.

A right turn here took me down Parliament
Square, or The Broad Pavement as it was better known, to Parliament Street
where one of my deliveries was to the Lodging House which is still in
operation today. Across Henderson Street
to St Andrews Street past the Mission Hall (Band Of Hope) arriving at a
small street on the left whose name escapes me.

On again to Market Street on the left and up
to Tollbooth Wynd, no deliveries here but I
turned right towards the Kirkgate. Next,
Water Street and Charlotte Street then down the Kirkgate in the direction
of Leith Walk. A few deliveries here then into Storries Alley,
back up the Kirkgate, up Brickwork Close, no deliveries here either, then
back to Henderson Street."

No wonder the position was free!

The Short Route

"I soon decided that this was not for me and
told the Boss I was leaving. Fortunately
another run became vacant and I took that on. It
was the easiest run with only Brickwork Close and the top part of the
Kirkgate, A doddle with a smaller barrow and approx. forty pints."

Checking Out and In

"I can still remember Victor and Bert who
checked us out and in, and gave us a rocket if we were short on the
empties. How things change!"

Bob Cowe, Leith, Edinburgh: July 13, 2008

Recollections

2.

John Stewart

Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland

Thank you to John Stewart who wrote:

Henderson Street
Co-op

Age 13

"In 1947,
at the age of 13, I took a job with the local
co-op in Henderson Street delivering milk in the mornings and messages
in the afternoon. For the latter I was supplied with a bicycle with a
rigid basket container fixed in front of the handle bars and above the
small diameter wheel."

Wages

"The milk job was
a seven day week affair, requiring me to begin at 5.45am. I was earning
between the two jobs, 19/- (95p)
per week - 9/- for the milk and 10/- for the messages."

Milk Cart

"Each morning,
I would collect my two-wheeled cart from the yard in Yardheads
(appropriately named) and wheel it down to the store front. Sometimes I
would have to upright the cart as other milk boys would turn them
on their backs through devilment. There, I
would load it with quart, pint, and half-pint bottles."

The Round

"Collecting my
round book that told me of any changes in deliveries, I then set off
pushing the load towards Pirie Street, first
stopping off to deliver to 58 Gt Junction Street. I delivered to six
tenement stairs there, all of four flights. With a two steel milk
baskets nestling in my arms I would race up and down depositing full
bottles and collecting empties. Most times these empty bottles had been
washed but there were one or two customers who didn't comply. These
bottles smelt terribly of sour milk.

Taking a shortcut through the Cleansing Depot
I would come out into Junction Place. This was commonly know as Fire
Brigade Street, for obvious reasons.
The Station was there, alongwith the row of small tenements that were home to the crews and
their families. My deliveries were finished here."

Winter Mornings

"In the dark
winter mornings, I would have attached to the side of the cart a candle
lamp to warn off any overtaking cars, and I
should say horses as well, my delivery area being next to the cleansing
depot that operated with horse drawn refuge carts.

Delivering messages by bike was a hazardous
affair in those days with the granite setts of the streets and the tram
lines.

Summer Trip

"In the summer,
the co-op used to organise a milk boys' and
roll girls' trip to Dunbar. We would all
congregate at the Leith Central Station for the steam train journey to
the coast. It was the highlight of our year.

School

"All this
extra-curricular work took its toll. My schooling suffered. I suppose
I was too tired. Anyhow my promising potential took a knock from which
it never recovered.

Although I did enough to gain my Lower
Leaving Certificate in 1949, I knew even then that I had let myself
down. All thoughts of staying on and gaining University passes were
dashed."

John Stewart: September 14, 2008

Recollections

3.

Ian Smith

Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland

Thank you to Ian Smith who wrote:

Working Life

Milk Round

Age 11.5

"Around the
age of 11.5 yrs I started a milk run with the Henderson Street 'Leith
Provy'. Rules at the time said you had to be 13 yrs old and have a
form signed off by Parents / Guardians and handed into school.

The idea
was to make sure that you did not fall asleep in class. So for about a
year we kept it quiet that I was doing this milk run before getting the
form signed off."

Grocery Delivery

"One Saturday while getting paid John the
butcher came into grocers looking for the grocer message boy. He needed
a message delivered to a customer up near the Capital Picture House.

The Grocery Manager and John started arguing
over the use of the delivery guy. Being in the middle I said I would do
the errand. After picking up my comics from Joe the newsagent and
telling my mum where I was going, I did the errand.

Over the next few weeks I built the job into
working Saturdays then working in the afternoons, after school, as a
'butcher laddie'."

Message Bike

"I learnt to ride a message bike with large
wicker basket on the front. It had rubbish brakes, so it was just
as well I wore ex- army boots to act as manual brakes.

The main use for the bike was to go down to
the Chill Rooms, the main warehouse/factory (where sausages, black
puddings etc were made).

On one
trip, I carried 140lbs of lamb/sausages etc. 140lbs = 10 stone when I
came in at around 5 stone. Over the years, while at school I
basically did an apprenticeship.

Leaving School

So I left school on the Friday, and on the
following Tuesday I was manager in Lorne Street. The butcher's shop was
inside a grocer's shop.

Even when I moved into Brain Research, every
Saturday and during holidays, I would be found behind a counter as a
butcher.

My hours
of work on a Saturday tended to be 6.30am till 5pm. Friday nights on the
Christmas run-up would till we finished normally around 9pm.

My first thoughts were
'No way am I going back to school'."

What next?

"One of my brothers-in-law was climbing his
way up the ladder as a printer, so I thought I would become a printer.
Burt I was told 'No way!' and I was advised to do the course to
become a meat inspector.

Brain Research

At Christmas that year, I got a job in the Unit for
Research into Brain Metabolism working with Celia Yates and Hans
Gulberg. I helped them get their PhDs.

Celia spent her career in Edinburgh Uni.
While Hans became Prof in Trondiem. Head of Dept was Dr George
Ashcroft. Who became Prof in Aberdeen.

I spent some time in Aberdeen with Prof
Kozterlitz. His idea was that the brain has its own Morphine. He
discovered what are called Endorphins.

A year or so later 'Big Frank Cochrane'
found me, and I ended up working with Prof Sir Michael Woodruff.
(He did the first Kidney Transplant in UK.) We were trying to stimulate
the immune system to counteract Cancer."

Working as a Rep

"When we had our son we could not afford to
live on my wages so I managed to become ICI Animal Health Vet Rep for
Scotland.

When that job died I joined Astra
Pharmaceuticals and we launched the first SSRI (a type of Prozac).
So, for the next 35 years I was one of the top medical reps in UK."

From the Slums of Leith

"This
is a bit of a ramble, but it shows what can happen to someone who grew
up in the slums of Leith, just as the 'Banana Flats' were built."